Francois Proulx, fproulx@illinois.edu
Wed, 3:00 - 4:50 PM
As the novel gains popularity and prestige the 19th century, it increasingly represents readers and reading in complex ways. We will examine how characters in books read other books (real and fictional), outlining particular practices of reading and writing. Our inquiry will extend to related topics: book history and the history of reading; gender history and theory; canon formation and the 19th-century emergence of literary studies as a discipline; methods and theories of critical reading today. Readings include works by Stendhal, Balzac, Sand, Flaubert, Rachilde, Huysmans. Taught in French.